Dive Brief:

• Cindy Elsberry, former superintendent of Horry County Schools in South Carolina, sees blended learning as a way to increase teacher capacity and impact by providing data to better understand student learning needs and the tools for individualized instruction.
• Elsberry writes for District Administration that there are six models at teachers’ disposal, including a classroom rotation model, where students get a mix of instruction types at various stations, and the face-to-face driver model, where online learning is supplemental and delivered in a traditional classroom.
• There is also the flex model, in which teachers provide in-person support for a primarily online curriculum; online labs, where students work from computer labs to take online courses; a la carte, which offers online courses to students as a supplement to other courses; and online driver, in which students take their classes remotely but come to a school building for extracurricular activities.

Dive Insight:

When Elsberry led the Horry County Schools, a high-poverty district in northeast South Carolina, she was known for digital transformation. The district saw improved student performance on local and state tests as well as college entrance exams. More recently, the district also made the news for paying $8,000 to unlock files that were encrypted by ransomware hackers.

When it comes to blended learning, modern technology offers teachers greater power to differentiate instruction than ever. Districts can ensure a smooth transition to a new teaching style by offering high-quality professional development. Teachers need to know how to use the tools they ask their students to work with and they need to know how to incorporate them into lessons. Too many teachers simply use digital devices to replace worksheets, but they hold much more potential than that.